Mothers Day
by TimeLord33
Summary: A look into one possible reason the Doctor left Gallifrey


Mother's Day  
  
By  
  
Tom Tarpey  
  
  
  
The Doctor watched the Gallifreyan sunset from the veranda of his room in the citadel. Technically it wasn't a veranda, it was a sensor port on the dome outside his quarters, converted to a veranda. Time Lords don't believe in verandas, or windows for that fact. There was quite a bit of turmoil when he installed it, staunchy old proper Time Lords don't like change. When, however, your best friend is Lord President of the High Council you are awarded a few perks.  
  
"Doctor?" a voice called from the front of his quarters.  
  
Speak of the devil. "Out here Romana."  
  
The Doctor had lived the majority of this regeneration here on Gallifrey, helping Romana affect her reform policies. It was not an easy job.  
  
"Well, considering all the trouble I went thru to get you this structure I suppose I should be grateful you use it… even at the cost of our dinner meeting." chided Romana as she joined the Doctor in the early evening sun.  
  
Realization struck the Doctor. "Dinner, tonight. I'm so sorry, Romana, I completely forgot, my mind was a million parsecs away."  
  
"Care to talk about it?" probed Romana, removing the pin from her blonde hair, letting it fall to her shoulders.  
  
The Doctor had to admit her most recent regeneration was quite striking. Blue eyes, tall slender frame, maybe in another life…  
  
"On earth," he started, bringing his mind back to the present, "they set aside days to celebrate and honor important people and positions."  
  
"I am familiar with the custom. So what is today?" she asked.  
  
He stood and turned to face the horizon, suddenly he seemed so much older. "Mother's Day." he sighed.  
  
"When the White Guardian recruited me to help you recover the Key to Time I researched your background. There was plenty of information on you, and your father of course, but I remember thinking how odd it was that there was next to nothing on your mother. Not even her name," said Romana. "There was a rumor going about that she was… human."  
  
"It's true.," admitted the Doctor.  
  
"So, your half human," pondered Romana. "No wonder."  
  
"Why does everyone say that?"  
  
"How did your father meet her?"  
  
"Well, what your background check probably didn't uncover is that, on occasion, my father worked for the C.I.A.." said the Doctor.  
  
Romana whistled. "The Celestial Intervention Agency, my, my, like father like son." She teased. "It's a wonder that he didn't have to arrest you at some point."  
  
"That, my dear Romana, is a story for another time. Now as I was saying," the Doctor continued. "one of his cases brought him to Earth, late twentieth century. There he met and fell in love with my mother, Anna was her name.  
  
"She was an amazing woman, she was strong willed at a time when women weren't supposed to be. She was beautiful, intelligent, there was nothing she could not accomplish when she put her mind to it." He paused, his eyes seemed to fog over with the memory. "My father never had a chance." he smiled.  
  
"Anna saw something special in my father and when he explained who he was and where he was from she accepted it with an open mindedness that I thought bordered on the insane. When he asked her to come with him back to Gallifrey she happily ventured into the unknown with him. Getting the okay to have her live here was no small feat, I remember being told one council member, Rothchilde was his name, was strongly opposed to it. He was a petty man who had never gotten along with my father, he threw out words like 'genetic impurity' and 'alien cultural contamination'. She was not, however, the only alien living on planet at the time, so in consideration for my father's many contributions to the community it was, begrudgingly, allowed.  
  
"She fought hard to fit in, she took a night job in the planetary communications department. By the end of the year she was running the department and redesigned the whole system for the better." A chuckle escaped the Doctor. "Imagine a human female from late twentieth century, showing the advanced society of Time Lords a better way of doing things. She earned the respect and admiration of everyone she worked with. Even now, almost 2000 years later, I still meet technicians who worked with her and remember how wonderful she was.  
  
"Not long after that, she took a leave of absence to have me. I realize it's common through out the universe to think your mom is the greatest, but unless you had my mom, you're wrong. She focused her life on raising me, she taught me right from wrong. She taught me to respect others and myself. She taught me patience and love. All this she did not only in words but in actions as well." The Doctor sat down and poured a cup of tea from the tray in front of him, he offered a cup to Romana but she declined.  
  
"I remember once," he continued, "I had made friends with a Shaboogan, from low town, Alfrix was his name. Just the fact that this 'savage' was even in the dome turned some heads. One day, Alfrix, myself and a boy from school, Runciple, were playing near Runciple's family quarters. Runciple, by the way, was Rothchilde's son. Now I don't recall the exact circumstances, but something broke, Rothchilde came out and let Alfrix have it, 'you don't belong here' he shouted 'you're a savage, your parents ought to be ashamed' and so on.  
  
"Well, the two of us left Runciple and ran home where we relayed to my mother what happened. Now keep in mind my mother had endured countless slurs from our society, not only for who she was but also for who my father was to. In all that time I never saw her angry, or say an unkind word in retaliation." The Doctor smiled, remembering the moment. "When she heard what Rothchilde had said to Alfrix she became incensed, with us in tow she headed to his house. She then proceeded to eloquently tell Rothchilde what a pompous ass he was, and when criticizing other people's lifestyles she reminded him that people who live in glass house shouldn't throw stones.  
  
"It was wonderful, he was speechless. It was one of the few times I ever saw her really upset. One of the only times I ever saw her lay into someone like that, other than my father that is. She did this all to defend a little boy she hardly knew, just because she thought he was treated unfairly."  
  
"It must run in the family," smiled Romana.  
  
"Perhaps," smiled the Doctor. "Shortly after I started at the academy Anna became ill. She developed the Earth disease cancer. Now of course Gallifreyan medicine could have easily cured her, and it seemed like everything would be fine. Our old friend Rothchilde, however, had other plans.  
  
"He convened a session of the High Council. He argued that my mother was supposed to die, that letting her live would disrupt the time stream. The technology of her time could not cure her so curing her would be a violation of the non-interference policy. It was ludicrous, it was insane, and it worked. My father fought as hard as he could, but along with the well-placed friends he had made he also gathered some high placed enemies. Plus the fact that Rothchilde, pompous ass that he was, had important allies on the council. So it was decreed that she would be returned to Earth and live out her remaining time there." The Doctors hands clenched in anger, even now.  
  
"The council was 'generous' enough to allow my father and I to accompany her. For the next seven months we watched my mother endure barbaric treatments in the futile hope that it might at least prolong her life. Chemotherapy, radiation, these things were as primitive to us as bleedings and leeches were to the Earth people of her time. The cancer permeated her body, she wasted away to nothing, a shadow of the proud beautiful woman she was. Still she never complained, never uttered a bad word against the petty men who selfishly withheld the simplest procedure that would save her life."  
  
He took a deep breath, bracing himself for the most difficult part of his story. "On an early September evening Anna succumbed to her illness and passed away. We buried her and shortly there after returned to Gallifrey. Life went on. I think that that was the most difficult thing for me, everyone went on about their lives as if nothing were wrong. There was, however, a hole in my life, nothing seemed the same without her.  
  
"I made a decision. I came from a race of time travelers, and I was going to use that skill to rescue my mother from the injustice I felt had been done to her. In all my studies I noticed that the people who tried to change history had done so on a massive scale for personal gain. These changes had far reaching ramifications, and could not help but be noticed and quashed by the Time Lords. I was just saving one life, and I would cover my tracks well enough that no one would notice time was even affected. I plotted and schemed, then finally late one night I hatched my plan.  
  
"I snuck into a TARDIS holding bay and borrowed a capsule. My first stop was an Earth morgue, here I 'liberated' the corpse of a deceased homeless woman. With the facilities in the TARDIS I restructured the body to look like mom.  
  
"Second I piloted the capsule to the house we lived in when my mother died, shortly after she passed away. As I stepped from the ship, carrying the homeless corpse, I looked out the window on to the porch. There, just as I remembered, was my past self standing with my father watching the sunset over the church across the street, it's bells were chiming. I had very little time I knew my father and I would be back in soon to start making funeral arrangements. I placed the replica in Anna's bed and thanked the nameless woman quietly as I brought my mother on to the TARDIS."  
  
The Doctor fidgeted in his chair. Romana was unsure if he was uncomfortable with what he had done or with telling the story. He continued, "I could now relax a little. Within the temporal grace of the TARDIS her body was frozen in it's recent death state. I now began step three of my plan. I would take the TARDIS to a point in Earth's future where cancer was cured. I prearranged to meet with a Dr. Boone. He would have a medical facility waiting. I fed him a story about finding this woman in the hills trying to cure herself homeopathically. Whether or not he believed me I couldn't say, nor did I care. All that mattered was he was the tops in his field and he could help her.  
  
"I materialized just outside the hospital and hurried her in. Dr. Boone was waiting, he was shocked, he had never seen anyone in so late a stage of the disease. After several hours of micro-surgery and bio- regenerative medication, he predicted she would make a 100% recovery inside a month." He stopped, ran his hands thru his thinning brown hair, sipped his tea and continued. "Relief flooded over me, but it was short lived. I sat next to her bed. Dr. Boone said she would probably regain consciousness within the hour, and I wondered what I would say to her when she woke up. It was then I noticed how quiet it had become.  
  
"The constant chatter of med-techs in the hall ceased, even the machines monitoring mom's condition were quiet. It was as if time was standing still, my hearts sank, I ran into the hall. Anyone who wasn't a Time Lord was in a time stop, the chancellor's guards were everywhere, and technicians were busily erasing the memories of anyone we came in contact with. I was arrested. The stolen TARDIS was impounded and I never saw my mother again." The Doctor turned to wipe a tear from his eye. "So close," he whispered.  
  
"I'm sorry," said Romana.  
  
The Doctor shrugged. "There was a low key trial, my mind was only half in the courtroom. I vaguely recall some of the evidence that set them on my trail. Such as, if you steal a TARDIS without disconnecting the recall device, you're fairly easy to trace. Also a simple gen-scan of the corpse I left showed she wasn't my mother. Anyway, thanks to some favors called in by my father, and the fact everyone involved wanted to keep the incident low key - it's not good politically to have a first year academy student commandeer a TARDIS and almost succeed in altering history - I got off with a slap on the wrist, as long as I kept quiet about the incident I could return to the academy.  
  
"So that is what I did. I coasted thru, graduated,"  
  
"On the second attempt." reminded Romana. "On the second attempt." conceded the Doctor. "I dabbled in a few project here at home, tried to fit in, but all the hypocrisy ingrained in our society just reminded me of what they had taken from me… from her. That combined with some other situations were the main reasons I decided to leave the first time.  
  
"I wish I could have met her." said Romana.  
  
"You would have liked her, and she you. You both had the same indomitable spirit and class." He smiled. "The funniest part of it all is she died before I was three decades old. But in the last twenty centuries not a day has gone by that I haven't thought about her or used something she taught me to govern my life.  
  
The Doctor stood. "Well I've kept a woman of your responsibility up far to late, I should let you go."  
  
"Not at all, thank you for sharing," she replied. "I'm sure we could still get some dinner."  
  
"I appreciate the offer but no, I just remembered I have something to tend to. Tomorrow I'll make it up to you, promise," the Doctor said as he walked Romana to the door. "Thank you, Romana."  
  
She smiled and touched his hand. "Goodnight, Doctor."  
  
Epilogue  
  
Romana emerged from her hiding place in the Doctor's TARDIS, brushing the dust from herself. She knew him well enough to know he had trouble in his eyes when he had said goodnight. So she had waited at the end of the hall from his quarters for a few moments and, sure enough, he emerged and headed for the TARDIS docking bays. Romana took a shortcut and arrived just ahead of him and hid herself in his boot cupboard.  
  
Now she headed for the infirmary. If the Doctor was up to what she thought he was, that was where he would be. As she rounded the corner to the infirmary the Doctor was headed towards her, his head down studying a data pad. Without looking up he said, "Ah, Romana, so you decided to stop sneaking about and join me, good. The boot cupboard is such an undignified place for someone in your position to hide."  
  
"Well if someone hadn't jettisoned my room…" she chastised.  
  
"Touché," responded the Doctor as he entered the door to the infirmary.  
  
Romana followed, and although she saw what she expected, she was still surprised. Laying on the med-bed, unconscious, was a dark haired human female. She looked gaunt and slightly emaciated, but the medical port showed normal for an earthling recovering from a difficult illness.  
  
"Oh Doctor, how could you?" she sighed.  
  
Anger flared in the Doctor's eyes. "How could I?" He started. "How could I? How could I not! She's not some meglomaniacle alien planning to plunder the sector. Neither is she a pawn of the White Guardian whose death is essential to universal harmony. She is my mother and I feel she deserves better than she got!" He took a deep breath and regained his composure. "Sorry," he said.  
  
"Can I assume you covered your tracks better this time?" asked Romana, rubbing her thumb and forefinger against the bridge of her nose.  
  
"I materialized the TARDIS just after my previous self left the hospital room to be arrested, but before the Castellan came in to recover the body," answered the Doctor. "Her body I replaced with a geneti-clone, it's indistinguishable from her original body on any known scan." He lowered his head and asked, "What are you going to do?"  
  
"About what," smiled Romana  
  
The Doctor put his arm around her shoulder and said, "Thank you my friend, from the bottom of my hearts."  
  
"A better question would be, what are you going to do?" she asked.  
  
"Well," said the Doctor, "many things come to mind, but I think I'll start by wishing her a happy Mother's Day."  
  
The End. 


End file.
